THUMBS UP: Bottled water ban

Published 12:00 am, Monday, February 21, 2011

It's such an obvious budget-saving measure, it is remarkable that the mayor hasn't ordered the city to stop buying bottled water. The savings wouldn't be large, about $32,000 a year, but it is a ludicrous and wasteful practice. New Haven spends that money to truck five-gallon bottles filled from the municipal water supply in Worcester, Mass., to city and school offices here.

The tap water here is just as good, if not better. It undergoes thousands of tests annually to ensure its purity. Water fountains are a more-than-adequate substitute.

If workers consider bottled water an absolute necessity, empty jugs could be filled with New Haven tap water, instead of tap water from Worcester.

Rather than the mayor simply stopping the purchase of bottled water, the issue has gone before the Board of Aldermen. Alderman Justin Elicker has proposed the board ban spending the city's money on bottled water. They should, and soon.

It's such an obvious budget-saving measure, it is remarkable that the mayor hasn't ordered the city to stop buying bottled water. The savings wouldn't be large, about $32,000 a year, but it is a ludicrous and wasteful practice. New Haven spends that money to truck five-gallon bottles filled from the municipal water supply in Worcester, Mass., to city and school offices here.

The tap water here is just as good, if not better. It undergoes thousands of tests annually to ensure its purity. Water fountains are a more-than-adequate substitute.

If workers consider bottled water an absolute necessity, empty jugs could be filled with New Haven tap water, instead of tap water from Worcester.

Rather than the mayor simply stopping the purchase of bottled water, the issue has gone before the Board of Aldermen. Alderman Justin Elicker has proposed the board ban spending the city's money on bottled water. They should, and soon.